xkcd

Word Crescent

Word Crescent

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2012 3:46 pm UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

I'd like to introduce you to this new game. The gameplay is similar to Mornington Crescent, but instead of stations you move from word to word. There are several rulebooks and strategy guides already. I recommend José Fentenmeyer-Graft's "Word to word".

To make it interesting, each game will have a different target word that you have to get to to win. If you win a game you may pick the word for the next game. The first game will have the target "Praline"

Edit: as of page 2, the game is a quantum superposition of two games: In one we are still playing for "praline", and the other is playing for "checkmate" (and Vytron won the first game)

I'll start.

Circumnavigate

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 1:25 pm UTC

by orangedragonfire

Discover.

This does seem to be rather easy; you can map it to an extended game of Mornington Cresent White Chocolate with Strawberries, 2009 rules. Then just play normally. Unless I'm missing something?

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:02 am UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

Clapper

Not really, I mean there's such a diversity of words, and their interactions are much more complex than in MC. Also stations just have a different kind of dynamic. No matter what variants you make, the gameplay will never be quite the same between the two.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 3:51 am UTC

by Vytron

orangedragonfire wrote:You can map it to an extended game of Mornington Cresent White Chocolate with Strawberries, 2009 rules.

I've done it, it looks like this for the words surrounding the target:

(Click on the link for High Definition version)

I think the main difference between this and White Chocolate with Strawberries Mornington Cresent 2009 (not the be confused with White Chocolate with Strawberries Mornington Crescent 2009, which has completely different and unrelated rules) is that in that one you can see a map of the London Underground system and spot Mornington Cresent immediately, while in this one looking for Praline may seem like finding Waldo (every time, as the map varies depending on the POV of the last word arrived.)

Dr. Diaphanous's claim that this game is "new" is really weird, as there was a record that the Olmec played a variation of Word Crescent that used hieroglyphs instead of words, and the target was always to reach their glyph for "La Venta" (instead of a new one decided by the winner), but the rules are basically the same (i.e. as similar as Chaturanga is to Chess), and there's a controversy about the origin of Mornington Crescent (Started by Wilson Frienitscher, following the work of his father Sir Henry, in the book "The history of Mornington Crescent Revisited: Was my father totally wrong?") that says it's a mash-up game that takes the best rules from the Olmec, Roman ("Empire Version") and Viking versions to create the first MC versions of the game played on Medieval Britain.

So, arguably, Word Crescent is an ancestor of MC, at least in part.

Brobdingnagian

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 1:56 pm UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

Vytron wrote:Dr. Diaphanous's claim that this game is "new" is really weird, as there was a record that the Olmec played a variation of Word Crescent that used hieroglyphs instead of words, and the target was always to reach their glyph for "La Venta" (instead of a new one decided by the winner), but the rules are basically the same (i.e. as similar as Chaturanga is to Chess)

Everyone I've ever asked said that word crescent was invented in November/December 2011. So what if some obscure game played by obscure Mexicans had similar rules? It wasn't the same and it wasn't known.

Vytron wrote: there's a controversy about the origin of Mornington Crescent (Started by Wilson Frienitscher, following the work of his father Sir Henry, in the book "The history of Mornington Crescent Revisited: Was my father totally wrong?") that says it's a mash-up game that takes the best rules from the Olmec, Roman ("Empire Version") and Viking versions to create the first MC versions of the game played on Medieval Britain.

Whoever told you that is an idiot. The controversy about the origin of MC was started by Owembe MacDiarmaid, a full two months before Frienitscher put pen to paper.

Anyway,Glassy-eyed

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 2:19 pm UTC

by skellious

If I may make so bold, gentlemen, I think I can settle this little debate. Word Crescent is obviously just a generalised form of MC and since we already know the medieval origins of that particular game, WC MUST be the elder of the two. Nevertheless, a jolly fun jape if ever I saw one, so I make my move.

Supped.

Which I believe neatly puts you in Pring, Dr. Diaphanous.

I take a white counter for my trouble.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 2:46 pm UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

Putting poor people in pring prevents plentiful possibilities, but I can possibly positively progress, posting Pusillanimity.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 2:50 pm UTC

by skellious

"Pusillanimity" You absolute rotter!

However I think I can just about sneak in an

Amboceptor!

HAH!

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 3:07 pm UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

Not bad.

Knock-kneed

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 3:09 pm UTC

by skellious

Commendable.

Prancing.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 3:23 pm UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

Po-faced

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 1:26 am UTC

by Vytron

Dr. Diaphanous wrote:Whoever told you that is an idiot. The controversy about the origin of MC was started by Owembe MacDiarmaid, a full two months before Frienitscher put pen to paper.

It's all over the internet. Example links (search for "Sir Henry Frienitscher"):

In contrast, the work of Owembe MacDiarmaid is as obscure as the work of Wilson Frienitscher. I rest my case.

Though this proves that there's not only controversy about the history of Mornington Crescent, there's also controversy about who started the controversy.

I play Abyssinian, this should give me a cat token.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:53 am UTC

by Reecer6

I play Dog. Having ended a chain of Hausner words AND a chain of Words An 8-Year-Old May Not Know (as defined in the Word Crescent for Morningtons Handbook V.2), I'll take 63 Physics counters. I'll expend 20 of them to buy over Position.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:59 pm UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

Vytron wrote:Though this proves that there's not only controversy about the history of Mornington Crescent, there's also controversy about who started the controversy.

No there isn't.

Reecer6 wrote:I play Dog. Having ended a chain of Hausner words AND a chain of Words An 8-Year-Old May Not Know (as defined in the Word Crescent for Morningtons Handbook V.2), I'll take 63 Physics counters. I'll expend 20 of them to buy over Position.

Clever. I don't have a perfect response to that, but I can "buy back" 9 Physics counters by playing vanguard

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:02 pm UTC

by orangedragonfire

Shiver.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 5:58 am UTC

by Reecer6

Vancouver. Since this and the second-to-last word are linked by van, I can establish a train line between them for free. In addition to this, I also push Diaphanous back to guard.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 7:07 am UTC

by Vytron

Dr. Diaphanous wrote:No there isn't.

And in 2013, Dr. Diaphanous started a controversy of whether there was a controversy or not <- I'm serious, I'm sending it to the MC MetaVariants journal (now with more than 30 readers worldwide!)

Well, rats, I'm stuck in Word Crescent for Morningtons Handbook V.1.99.9z.betacrazynightly, which doesn't mention any of that, and it refuses to upgrade!

Erm.

(Note: THAT's my move, Word Crescent For Dummies [which, thank god, only has one edition] says that if it appears in Urban Dictionary it's a legal word as long as it's not put in bold.)

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 12:35 pm UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

Reecer6 wrote:Vancouver. Since this and the second-to-last word are linked by van, I can establish a train line between them for free. In addition to this, I also push Diaphanous back to guard.

I continue the push all the way to rearguard, which give me momentum for a double-hop to any hapax legomenon

Honorificabilitudinitatibus

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 2:23 pm UTC

by orangedragonfire

Ah, now I can take a long-short pass.

I

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 3:31 am UTC

by Vytron

Dr. Diaphanous wrote:I continue the push all the way to rearguard, which give me momentum for a double-hop to any hapax legomenon

Wow! The hapax legomenon of Word Crescent! Making it illegal to play Honorificabilitudinitatibus in any future game of Word Crescent anywhere! Ever!

PS - My move is hidden within this post, including Dr. Diaphanous's post, can you find it?

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:26 am UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

went

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:31 am UTC

by Vytron

Veni, vidi, vici(The Triple Word Gambit)

Lol, I don't even know if I'm getting closer to Praline, but these are about the road less traveled, anyway.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:33 am UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

I calm Vytrons' triple advantage with

Retardant

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:52 pm UTC

by orangedragonfire

I reserve the reverse.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:54 pm UTC

by Vytron

.sdrawkcab yalp I

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:54 pm UTC

by orangedragonfire

I turn the twist around.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:05 am UTC

by Vytron

I'm still retarded.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:28 am UTC

by thecamoninja

Has anyone else noticed Diaphanous' proclivity for hyphenated and remarkably long, obscure words? (The technical term for such words in this game is Preely Words, iirc). He's played far more of them than anyone else, at least upon a cursory glance through the game so far. This worries me - we've seen a few small, silly little gambits already, like Vytron's triple word and ODF's long-short pass, and some people have started racking up tokens early on, but while I admit that right now Diaphanous doesn't seem to have much of a lead - if anything, he's close to lagging a bit behind, it seems to me like he might be setting himself up for a Major/Minor Preeman-Portly Triple Kickflip Supergambit, which, as I'm sure you all know, would basically guarantee him the win later on in the game. I know this small amount of evidence doesn't exactly prove he's going for it, but I feel we can't take that risk: not only would he win, but we would all lose in basically the most humiliating way possible (short of, of course, the losing conditions of the New 2012 Neo CrescentWord rule set, which is frankly fucking ridiculous).

Also note how masterfully he used that Hapax Legomenon on Honorificabilitudinitatibus, which would have been a terrific counter to this strategy once he revealed it (think about it-it seems like a strange play, but it's really counter intuitive in how effective it is).

So, in order to mitigate the Supergambit, I'm going to bite the bullet and take one for the team by playing

Niggardly

Which is really a terrible first play, but necessary to stop Diaphanous. At least it plays well off of Vytron's retarded.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:16 am UTC

by Vytron

thecamoninja wrote:it seems to me like he might be setting himself up for a Major/Minor Preeman-Portly Triple Kickflip Supergambit, which, as I'm sure you all know, would basically guarantee him the win later on in the game.

Definitively Minor, remember he has to crisscross with the Middle words first, as Praline is a Short word (named for the Word Groups Order introduced by William Short).

thecamoninja wrote:(short of, of course, the losing conditions of the New 2012 Neo CrescentWord rule set, which is frankly fucking ridiculous).

Can you elaborate on this? I try to always stay up to date in the latest changes and rulesets of Mornington Crescent, but it's really hard to do the same with Word Crescent due to its obscurity.

It seems I'm slowing down some players, so I'm going to Rest (the word) and Rest (the action), hopefully when I wake up Dr. Diaphanous's Retardant will have faded away (note: leaving "Retardant" not bolded to avoid confusion).

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:07 pm UTC

by thecamoninja

Vytron wrote:Can you elaborate on this? I try to always stay up to date in the latest changes and rulesets of Mornington Crescent, but it's really hard to do the same with Word Crescent due to its obscurity.

Well, Neo CrescentWord has always been known for being a little bit out there in terms of penalties imposed on players who don't do well, which is something other rule sets don't even do at all. I haven't actually read through the new 2012 rules themselves, because the set is something like 2 000 pages, and apparently just the act of reading it enters you into some sort of binding contract. I read an article about it, though, written by someone who had played a few games in person with some fellow enthusiasts. Each separate game took roughly 78 hours. Not all of them survived the ordeal. Neo CrescentWord has never been a particularly popular set to begin with; it was always on the obscure end of the spectrum of an obscure game, reserved for the really hardcore players, but I think it's universally agreed upon by the small posse of people who've played it or even heard of it that it just goes way too far. I'm having trouble recalling the specifics, but suffice to say the complexities of the rules are so varied and intricate (yes, even varied and intricate as compared to regular Word or Mornington Crescent rules), and even in some places so blatantly contradictory, that it is nigh on impossible to play a word without violating some sub-clause or the other, which ends up badly for the players due to the penalty system.

As to the Major/Minor issue, I see where you're coming from, but remember that Praline is a Multi-strata word; the Short classification is just one stratum, probably the most likely to be invoked, but if he goes for a more obscure stratum... well, actually, it would probably still end up minor, but what I'm wondering now is if he could pull off a superposition of both major and minor. I'm not really up to date on the Quantum Phenomena rules, though, so I can't say.

Anyways, sorry for all the wordy posts - I find this is the type of game where discussing strategy is almost more fun than actually playing.

Seeing as Vytron is resting, I figure I'll help him out a bit and issue a Q Ordinance, so that players have to stick to words in the Marshmallow Word Group. Of course, that's a pretty big group, but it actually limits my possibilities due to the Soft q limit, so I'll play Inflatable

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 3:52 am UTC

by Vytron

thecamoninja wrote: I'm not really up to date on the Quantum Phenomena rules, though, so I can't say.

Gee Willikers, does Word Crescent allow QP rules??!, and are they similar to the Quantum Phenomena rules of Mornington Crescent? No wonder I couldn't find a way for Dr. Diaphanous to pull out a SuperGambit, I had a huge void in my knowledge!

thecamoninja wrote:Anyways, sorry for all the wordy posts - I find this is the type of game where discussing strategy is almost more fun than actually playing.

I fully agree with this, thank you very much for the elaboration. This is the main reason I'm playing Word Crescent, in MC some people may play an unexpected move or apply an unexpected rule, but that mainly happens at the end of the games, while WC is a whole new world to discover

thecamoninja wrote:Seeing as Vytron is resting, I figure I'll help him out a bit and issue a Q Ordinance, so that players have to stick to words in the Marshmallow Word Group. Of course, that's a pretty big group, but it actually limits my possibilities due to the Soft q limit

Wow, thank you very much, this means I can play Chocolate already! I also find it really ironic that Diaphanous used a retardant on me but he's the one that has been frozen in went (bolded to avoid confusion) the last few moves.

Note: These last few moves may seem as if thecamoninja and me were colluding with each other, but in reality are just optimal moves played independently. We haven't had any Private conversation to arrange this.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:04 am UTC

by Reecer6

Marshmallows? Agh! I was planning on dropping down Fruitfully before you called the Q Ordinance, nailing me a basket full of fruits! Instead, I'll have to stick for Regretful. A bag of regrets is much less useful, especially when no one's brought us into Emet.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 10:14 am UTC

by Vytron

A ha! Reecer6 carelessly bolded the word "Fruitfully", which according to Ambiguous ruling, could be mistaken. I officially "mistake" it, which allow me to pull out this rarity:

Orthogonal shunt to Cocoa.Diagonal shunt to Saffron.Matrix jump to Milkshake.

And finally:

Farkle (the action, not the word).

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:52 pm UTC

by orangedragonfire

I split Milkshake into Milk and Shake.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 3:08 pm UTC

by Vytron

And I'm split into Vyt and ron, rats, this ain't gonna be easy now

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:40 am UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

All those Preely words give me the momentum points to pull a dive to

Pralines

(Note that, perhaps a little counterintuitively, there is no direct link from pralines to praline. However, this counts as a Daring skim so I should be able to loop around in a few turns)

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 12:08 pm UTC

by thecamoninja

...Fuck. I totally didn't see that coming. Why go for an unwieldy supergambit when such a simple alternative exists? Oh well.

Quixotic

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 12:15 pm UTC

by Dr. Diaphanous

Oh yes, I broke us out of the marshmallow group didn't I?

Lictor

I spend my oil token, increasing my speed.

Re: Word Crescent

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 6:41 pm UTC

by Vytron

, just , I just updated to Word Crescent for Morningtons Handbook V.2, and, according to it, I can do this!

I use my friend Catherine token to drink the Milk, which fuses my two halves together!